News and information

Something astonishing just happened aboard the International Space Station

A pair of cosmonauts just set a new Russian record for longest spacewalk on the International Space Station recently.

A pair of cosmonauts have just set the record for the longest spacewalk outside the International Space Station by a Russian ever. After 8 hours and 13 minutes working outside the station, they were able to deal with a long-awaited up grade to the ISS’s communication system on the Russian side of the orbiting space lab.

Expedition 54 Commander Alexander Misurkin and flight engineer Anton Shkaplerov conducted the spacewalk at 10:35 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, and di not return until more than eight hours later. NASA TV commentator Rob Navias joked during the webcasta that as it was Groundhog Day, the cosmonauts have “emerged from the Pirs docking copartment, ultimately they’ll see their shadow … thus earning 6 more hours of spacewalk activity.”

The cosmonauts replaced the electronics box for a communications antenna, and sent the old piece of equipment overboard, meaning it will burn up on reentry with the atmosphere. The old box had spend 17 years without use as Russia tried to figure out how to fund a replacement.